Irish Pubs

I want to make a quick observation about Irish pubs. The Irish pub scene is by far one of the coolest aspects about the night life in Ireland. The pub scene is very laid back. In a pub you can see a 70 year old sitting next to an 18 year old laughing and having a good time while listening to musicians playing real, authentic Irish music. The pub scene is so cool because its main focus is usually on music, or football (lesson learned from Green Street Hooligans, never call it Soccer). The music tradition in Ireland is evident. When you walk around the Temple Bar area in Dublin, there are numerous musicians on the street performing. While they are usually playing for money, their main focus is getting their sound out on the street. It was fascinating/inspiring to see so much raw talent that played on the streets. In the pubs, the Guinness flowed like the headwaters of the Mississippi and the music was playing until the wee hours of the morning. It was very refreshing to be in an atmosphere where you can actually talk to the people (person in my case) you are with and not have to compete with Lady Gaga annoyingly sing about a disco stick...actually it is always refreshing when I don't hear Lady Gaga.
One other cool thing that you would commonly see in a pub is that even though the people are amongst their own private conversations, everyone in the pub could not help but tap their toes or clap to the music. Quite honestly, the music that we heard was kind of intoxicating, and without a doubt, it allowed us to leave the place with a smile on our face and a desire to go back and listen to more. This is unlike several bars I have seen in the US (mainly the Twin Cities where I am gathering most of my generalizations). The bar scene in America seems so lame compared to Ireland. In Irish pubs there was not this sense of a "meat market" between men and women. I did not see any obnoxious students drunk to the point where they made fools out of themselves, nor did it seem to be the goal of the locals to get "crunked" while wearing the latest American Eagle polo shirt. I did not see any of it, and that is one thing that made the whole pub experience so great.